Elana Belle Carroll isn’t one to mince words. Not that she doesn’t have plenty to say, just don’t expect her to hold your hand during the conversation. Equal parts music writer, film music composer and perfomer, Carroll describes her latest project Vernous as ‘electrolash.’ For this group, she takes her no nonsense approach to a rattlesnake hybrid of pounding dance beats and bone-chilling lyrics.

‘We are Children’ for instance, begins and ends it’s 6 minute chant with haunting foreboding (‘Don’t wait… listen…’), fellow artist Melanie Snyder whispers into the song. But it’s not all venom. At other moments, Vernous lets loose. Three song EP ‘Vernous I’ ends with the more playful ‘DTF,’ a song with a wild progression of beachside guitars and 808 snare hits. Not for the faint of heart, Vernous will wrap itself around you and like with any exciting woman you’ve ever met, you’ll thank her for the time you two spent together.

Put her groove under your feet when Vernous plays new Bushwick Venue The Paper Box on August 10. – Mike Levine – This band submitted their music for review here.

The Tumbling Bones are purveyors of traditional American music who value, above all, grit – and playing live. The Brooklyn based twenty-somethings who make up the trio have been callousing their hands and pushing their vocal chords for years as they’ve toured, recorded, and breathed folk music. Their raw take on old Americana has taken them across the world (they are currently in Ireland) and they don’t seem to miss any opportunity to play live, gigging with impressive regularity. Peter Winne’s deep baritone lead, Jake Hoffman’s cutting tenor, and Sam McDougle’s fiddle and percussion are faithful to old styles, but the Tumbling Bones can’t help injecting modern sensibilities into their music, however subtly. – (as posted in The Deli’s Open Blog – post your band’s entries, videos, and Mp3s here). The Deli’s NYC Open Blog is powered by The Music Building.

This week, we turn the tables on the creator of On The Beat, Sergio Moreno. Find out about his various projects (including The Hillary Watts Riot and Alacartoona), as well as other things he’s involved with, and see how he feels being in the hot seat for once. Catch the beat at the link here!

On The Beat is typically brought to you by Sergio Moreno, but has been overtaken this week by drummer and The Deli – Kansas City editor-in-chief Michelle Bacon. This weekly interview features some of the many talented drummers in the area.

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NYC’s We Are The Woods (not to be confused with Brooklyn’s band Woods) will release a new album this October. Their previous release was a Deli Record of the Month in 2011. Entitled “Whales & Roses,” the new album features the band’s signature vocal harmonies courtesy of singers Jessie Murphy and Marcia Webb. The vocal duo is accompanied by the band’s ornate instrumentation, which includes, among others, acoustic guitars, strings, flutes and tubas. We Are The Woods will hit NYC this fall at the Rockwood Music Hall September 5th and at the Living Room September 30th. Check out the title track to the upcoming album streaming below. – Read a recent Deli interview with the band here.

Mat Shoare and his band, The Empty Spaces, owe a lot to Buddy Holly, Duane Eddy and The Ventures. On Party Line, the band’s second EP, though, Shoare delivers a little more rockabilly and Replacements with his pop (especially on the brief standout, "Jackie Says"). You gotta give it up to the band, however, for embracing all the slap delay, Ampex tape and Stratocasters of old, without sounding merely like a tribute band. Recording live, the band captures the energy of its live shows. And like any good EP or 45, Party Line gives fans an snapshot of the band, unadorned with studio chicanery.

The EP starts fittingly with the title track, “Party Line,” a good indication of where the band’s headed in the next 20 minutes. The strongest track, "The 1960s Divorce Rate Blues," benefits most from the live recording when it collapses from a rocking 4/4 into a doo-wop waltz. The closer, "B-52’s," pushes the rockabilly envelope farthest. With the rhythm section carrying the song, Shoare has fun with a spring reverb tail louder than his twangy guitar.

With occasional mistakes that seem intentionally left in, these recordings certainly feel live. They could also benefit from overdubbing. Some background vocals or an occasional second guitar part give the listener something to return to. That minor complaint aside, one thing’s for certain, listening to Party Line aptly prepares anyone for an Empty Spaces concert. In the age bands filling out their live sound with auxiliary band members and laptops, this can certainly be refreshing.

Listen to tracks from The Empty Spaces’ first EP Low Noise at their page on Golden Sound Records.

The Empty Spaces will be kicking off a short Midwestern tour to celebrate the release of Party Line on Thursday night at The Brick with Soft Reeds and The Caves. From there, they’ll be hitting St. Joseph (Cafe Acoustic on Friday), Omaha, Des Moines, Minneapolis, Chicago, St. Louis, and Lawrence (The Jackpot on August 4).

–Jonathon H. Smith

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As the clock ticks away, there’s a fragility to every existence that Brooklyn’s experimental quintet In One Wind has captured with an admirable dramatic intensity. Drifting from the aesthetic innovations of their debut towards something more conceptual, they developed for their first EP Lean six narratives built upon an unstable structure, where each voice, with a warm candor, struggles to find its place, and pace itself to the rhythm of the song. Some find a note, a glimpse of a hook on which to rest, if only for a second; some find a partner, and as a solo turns to duet, gain a strength that can settle a tempo, or turn acoustic melancholia into distorted noise-rock; only the poor Drunkard finds nothing, and until the end of his sad tale sways uncertain as a subtle cymbal going crescendo suggests the weight of his time rushing by. Despite nuances of folk, jazz and rock, Lean defines an expressionist world of its own, where the textures and arrangements hold as much narrative power as the words themselves, if not more.  – Tracy Mamoun

The evolution of Vivian Girls’ founding member Cassie Ramone’s other project known as The Babies takes another step forward with the release of the 7" "Moonlight Mile," presented as an appetizer for the band’s upcoming new album. Started as a very DIY psych-pop band, the group in the last year has morphed its sound towards a new, more defined direction, which finds inspiration in the American Roots Rock of the 80s filtered through Frank Black’s odd chord progressions and relentlessly tense pop anthems.

Lead vocals handled this time by writing partner (and Woods’ bassist) Kevin Morby, a cautionary tale is laid out about the perils traveling down an uncertain road. Cassie contributes significantly with the hook-laden background vocals, which at times almost sounds like a horn section. A piercing lead guitar riff emerges, echoing the train metaphor that culminates the song’s lyrical statement. The track can be streamed now and will be released as the first single by the Woodsist label on August 14. The full album titled "Our House On The Hill" will be released in the fall. The 7" release will feature an exclusive B-side and is limited to 1,000 copies. The band will be playing multiple shows in Brooklyn, beginning with Public Assembly on 7/25, Union Pool on 7/28, Secret Project Robot on 7/31, McCarren Park on 8/15 and Union Pool again that same night. – Dave Cromwell

The man behind Seaflower must have listened to at least a little Black Sabbath during his teenage years. Ozzy’s tradition of nightmare guitar riffs and psychotically warped vocals is continued with rare aggression by Jersey native Joseph Biondi’s dizzying brand of hard rock.

But if anything, the solo project of Joseph Biondi is much more to the point than many of his influences. It seems when Seaflower needs to make a point, he prefers the axe to the scalpel. ‘Opossum Dreams’ (streaming below) has a hook and enough dissonance to justifies any amount of blank, while ‘Fuck You, Steve‘ is about well…. maybe just listen to the song yourself. Biondi’s brand of hyper-intense passion is bound to scare off some, for those left behind… it may be exactly what you need after a long week at the office. – Mike Levine (@Goldnuggets) – This bandsubmitted their music for review here.

Editor’s note: Today we begin a weekly Q&A of Kansas City musicians. We’ll be using the same questions each week so you can get to know the artists a little bit better. And if you’d like to be included, please send us a message at kceditor@thedelimagazine.com and we’ll get you in!

This week we’re joined by Jesse Kates, frontman of The Sexy Accident.

The Deli: Gun to your head: one sentence to describe your music.  What is it?

So it looks like Emily Wells (who recently relocated from LA to NYC) has finally let her guard down. After several records spent experimenting with her sample-based mix of chamber instruments and rock attitude, gypsy vocals and even some brief rapping interludes, she has released the first single to her new record ‘Mama,’ and it is something far bolder than expected.

‘Passenger’ contains that rare sort of rapture which is as surprising as it is comforting. With this track, Emily Wells may very well have crafted one of the best songs of the year, while proving the theory that to be a true badass, you have to be vulnerable.

Emily on tour will be supporting Minneapolis folk band Dark Dark Dark, a group that should help let the holy ghost in before Ms. Wells comes out. Join the bands when they return from national tours to play Friday, October 12th at The Knitting Factory. – Mike Levine

Darrin Bradbury (http://darrinbradbury.bandcamp.com/), the front-man for the North Jersey thrash-folk outfit Big Wilson River, will play a solo show at The Studio at Webster Hall on July 31st. In preparation for the show, Bradbury has organized his back catalog to chronicle his eight-year (and counting) career. Included among the traditionally recorded EPs are live tracks and demo tapes. One such demo is “Biscuits and Gravy,” which sounds reminiscent of a long-lost John Prine track. Check out Bradbury at the Studio Tuesday next week, and listen to “Biscuits and Gravy” streaming below. –

Joshua S.Johnson

At a DIY junction between industrial, goth rock and contemporary noise, Brooklyn’s Dolores Boys introduced themselves at the start of the year with a dark self-titled debut (Psychic Mule). Drilling, screeching, rasping sounds, distortion, bad recording and ominous drumbeats, inspired by ‘sado-masochism’ and ‘confusion’… neither techniques nor influences matter much as long as the sum is unhinging. Even ‘Jesus Gave Up On Blues Singers’, filled with silence and minor tones, is somewhat a soft torture of a blues track. Recording in ‘a claustrophobic coffin of a box 6 steps down’ with a balance of pedal effects and odd electronic noises, the duo sustains the angst as the soundtrack to their horror scenario drifts from chaos to eerie calm. On July 19th they played a noise rock party at Xpo929 with Insect, Hot Tub Panorama and Ice Balloons. Tracy Mamoun